Starting Saturday night, our Comcast Xfinity internet services were out for about twenty-two hours. It is interesting how much we rely on the internet.
We use AppleTV for all of our video services. I switched us from satellite DirecTV to DirecTV stream about a year and a half ago. The AppleTVs don't work without an internet connection.
Additionally, we have a large number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. I have a Smartthings hub with ring cameras, a Rachio sprinkler controller and Ecobee thermostats. All of the external lights and a number of internal lights are all controlled by the Smartthings hub. There is at least one external light with a switch that is almost impossible to get to so that you can turn it on and off manually. All of the IoT devices were offline.
We have a Peloton treadmill and bike. Neither of them work without an internet connection.
About 15,000 customers were impacted. Comcast is pointing to a car crashing into a pole and some equipment on Antelope Road in Citrus Heights and a fiber cut due to vandalism.
I spent forty years building and supporting networks. I would have expected that there was more redundancy in the equipment and the circuit paths. It would be interesting to see an architectural diagram of the internet connection to our house...
Like January of 2021, I was able to use my cell phone as a hotspot to connect my laptop to the internet. Just out of curiousity, I checked the availability of Verizon 5G Home service; it is not available in our area. Given how reliable the comcast service has been over the last four years, I don't think that a secondary connection, either wired or wireless, would be cost effective.
No comments:
Post a Comment